to
tell them. Some people thought, and still think, that the "Intrepid" was
about to be captured, and that Somers carried out his resolution to blow
up the vessel under him rather than allow it to be taken. Others suppose
that a red-hot cannon ball from one of the forts may have set the vessel
on fire; but the truth no one knows. We only know that this brave young
Jerseyman went out to his fate determined to do his duty, no matter what
happened, and that he died in doing it.

SEA FIGHTS WITH A NOBLER FOE.

The war with the Barbary pirates was all sorts of a war. Sometimes there
was fighting, and sometimes there was none; and after Bainbridge was
released, he was engaged part of the time in the mercantile service
until the war with Great Britain broke out in 1812. Early in this war,
Bainbridge took command of the "Constitution," the same vessel which, a
few months before, had had a fight with the "Guerriere," in which the
latter was captured. It is a good deal better, sometimes, to fight with
a strong enemy who will stand up bravely in front of you, and let you
see what he is, than to contend with a mean little one who is
continually getting out of the way and bobbing up at unexpected places,
and making it very difficult either to get at him or to know when he is
going to get at you. Consequently there is no doubt that Bainbridge much
preferred to do battle with the naval power of Great Britain rather than
with the pirates of Barbary.

He sailed down the coast of South America, and there he met the "Java,"
a British frigate. He had a hard fight and a long fight, and the end of
it was that the "Java" hauled down her flag after having a great
portion of her crew killed and wounded; and, as she was so thoroughly
shattered and broken up by the guns of the "Constitution," the victors
could not take her home as a prize, but were obliged to burn her.

If any one had been inclined to deride the Jerseyman at sea, after what
had happened to Bainbridge in the Mediterranean, he changed his opinion
after the affair with the "Java." In fact, a gold medal was voted to the
gallant captain by Congress. When the war with Great Britain was over,
Bainbridge took a squadron to the Mediterranean to try his hand again at
protecting American commerce, and humbling the pirates; but fortune did
not favor him this time, for Decatur had already settled the matter with
the Dey, the Bey, and the rest of them, and peace was declared before